Jackal has his day in court

The man who earned the nickname Carlos the Jackal in a 20-year career of international terrorism appeared in court in Paris today and claimed: "My profession is a revolutionary."

Speaking to confirm his real name -Ilich Ramirez Sanchez - he looked relaxed as he smiled and raised his arm in a clenched-fist salute.

Sanchez, 62, has been in a Paris jail since 1994 after being convicted of the 1975 killing of two French secret servicemen and an informer.

He is now accused of four bomb attacks in 1982 and 1983 that killed 11 people in France and faces an additional life sentence if found guilty at a special anti-terrorist court set up at the Palais de Justice.

Sanchez, a Venezuelan-born Marxist, got his nickname from the Frederick Forsyth novel The Day of the Jackal about a political assassin.

He arrived in a dock made of bullet-proof glass under conditions of the tightest security from La Sante prison. Prosecutors allege he carried out the attacks in order to force the authorities to release two of his accomplices, including Magdalena Kopp, whom he went on to marry.

Sanchez, who converted from Catholicism to Islam in 1975, denies all the current charges. Today his legal team included his third wife, barrister Isabelle Coutant-Peyre, 58, whom the notorious womaniser married in prison a decade ago.

Supporting her husband before the trial, Ms Coutant-Peyre said: "He is not a criminal but a politician, like Nelson Mandela. He is a freedom fighter - a revolutionary." When it was pointed out that Sanchez had admitted killing hundreds during his career as a "super terrorist", Ms Coutant-Peyre said: "It's very unfortunate for the victims, but there's always a reason in international politics."

In another interview on the eve of the trial, Sanchez admitted being responsible for up to 2,000 deaths in a series of shootings, hijackings and bomb attacks.

He told El Nacional, a newspaper in Venezuela: "Of the 1,500 to 2,000, there were no more than 200 civilian casualties." Sanchez said he coordinated "over 100" attacks during his terrorist career, claiming that "minor errors" had seen innocent people hurt. He also singled out America and Israel as his "main imperialist enemies".

Ms Coutant-Peyre is convinced she can get him out of his "filthy dungeon" and see him returned home to Venezuela as a pardoned political prisoner.

Sanchez first made international headlines in 1975 when he led a commando raid on an Opec oil cartel meeting in Vienna. The attack led to three deaths, with Sanchez then flying to Algeria with dozens of hostages and ending up extracting a ransom in the region of £10 million.